Even with the mess my camp had become and my minor bout of balltism there was a smile on my face.
Teddiursa remained in the ball as I treated the poliwags. I gave them a small pet on the head and some oran berries as they ran off into the water. Them being knocked out let me get a real good look at the spirals on their stomachs. Although it might have been wiser not to. The spirals were their insides showing through the thin skin of their bellies and sometimes it would move. That window into their anatomy aside they were cute little tadpoles and had tried to protect my camp. Mal floated after them and the group played in the pond. With them taken care of it was time to take care of my camp.
Eventually my supplies were laid out in some sort of order. My more expensive supplies and belongings were fine, they were just… sticky. Teddiursa in its quest for honey had taken out most of my supplies with its honey soaked forepaws. I didn't know the best way to clean up honey but I had a feeling I would need to learn it fast. Someone had to have some advice online about it. My eyes rested on my laptop for a moment or two. I needed to get another journey blog post up soon as part of my agreement with Mr.P. I had a feeling I'd have plenty to talk about.
Then there was my food situation. Teddiursa had done what bears do. They had gotten into my food supplies eating a decent chunk of it. It looked like I might be eating those Oran berries for lunch as well. The plan for camping out until the protagonists and all the plot was hopefully past me was shot unless I wanted to live off of berries for days. It would have been nice to know that I was behind them and any butterflies I caused in my wake wouldn't affect their growth.
Ho-Oh was said to only appear before trainers that were pure of heart. The protagonist became it through their journey. Raising and caring for the togepi egg was just part of it. All those countless little events they experienced and people they met on their journey molded and shaped them. The games never had my presence to account for. It seemed so easy to just mess it all up somehow. A few misplaced words or a problem solved before they could do it. Was that enough to stop them from reaching their potential? Would it stop them from becoming 'pure of heart'?
It was just all so vague.
Did anyone actually know what it was to be 'pure of heart'?
I could speculate that a portion of it was treating pokemon as friends. The entire series focused on the bonds between pokemon and humans. In the Solaceon Ruins laid one of the few messages of the games that was written in unown script. That 'scripture' as Mr.P called it when I said it to him 'All lives touch other lives to create something anew and alive'. There was another part to it, 'Friendship'. Humans and pokemon together as friends in this world. Working and living together to make something greater. Mr.P had responded with something about walking together. That could be something from the Ruins of Alph. Getting to see the unown… Those ruins just might be a good side trip.
There was another little piece of 'scripture' I might turn to for understanding. I hummed as I considered it.
"A heart so true." I muttered.
Nah, it couldn't be that easy, things rarely were.
With a chuckle I turned back to my supplies. Maybe I had been going about this wrong. I was one trainer out of thousands that started their journey in Johto this year. There were hundreds of trainers coming this way. The odds of me running into the protagonists was small. If I did, well I knew what they looked like. I could just avoid them and if I had to interact… as long as I didn't go spouting off secrets like some mysterious stranger I was just another normal trainer. A face in the crowd. The protagonist had their journey and I had mine.
They were unlikely to meet.
It was time to leave the woods.
The fading light as the sun was beginning to set roused me from my thoughts. I had spent hours cleaning and packing up my bag again and time had gotten away from me.
"Tomorrow then."
I had a small fire going and the side of my tent patched with duct tape when the first stars started twinkling into view. The smile had never left me, Teddiursa would be a core member of my team. Although, a dunsparce would have been nice as well. I could stretch things… I was maybe being a little greedy, wanting both. I should probably start looking into birds. A pidgey or maybe see if I can find a trade request and get something to exchange on the global trade system, the GTS. Mal, Teddiursa, and a bird was sounding pretty good as a starting team. Some good offense and a tank, that could take us pretty far. But that all was the future, I had something important to do now.
A simple button press and in a flash of light Teddiursa was standing before me with a slightly confused look on their face. It must be rather odd to go into a pokeball for the first time.
"Hey there Teddiursa." I knelt down. Teddiursas were only two feet tall and I towered over the little teddy bear like pokemon. Talking about the ransacking of the camp first thing seemed to be a poor way to start our relationship.
"Now we have something very important to do and that's to give you a name." I smiled as they watched me. "But before we do that I need to know something."
"So as a great man once said, are you a boy? Or are you a girl?" I held forth my right hand when I said boy and my left when I said girl.
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"Sa…" sounding grumpy they tapped my left hand.
"Ah how silly of me, a cute pokemon like you is clearly a girl." A headpet seem to appease them.
I sat and looked up to the stars. They were alien to me; the night sky I had grown up with wasn't there. Some nights I'd try and guess the constellations of this world. I knew litleo, that little lion cub pokemon was one. The rest I could have looked up but where was the fun in that?
Teddiursa took a seat next to me and absentmindedly licked a paw, getting at the honey hidden in her fur.
"I'm not really one for speeches or inspiring words." I pointed to the crescent moon that had finally made its presence known. "But just as the moon gets stronger so will you. Until finally you become an Ursaluna, a full moon."
"Ursa?" she questioned giving a tug on my jacket leaving a little honey from her grip.
I turned towards them, seeing a confused look on her face. "There's another evolution past Ursaring. I told you I knew a trick or two. "
She seemed to contemplate it for a bit before giving a little shrug and going back to licking honey.
"Eh, you'll be more impressed when you get there. But you need a good name." A pun like Mallardware just didn't fit for a future giant bear. There were plenty of nicknames to choose from but the obvious ones felt a bit overdone. The Namerater would probably roast me for it if I did use them. Was I a nickname hipster? I needed something strong but not overused. My eyes went back to the stars.
"In my world we had different stars."
"Teddi?"
"Uh, I fell here from another dimension." I never intended to keep my origins from my team. "We had two very important bear constellations. Um, one was a ursaring and the other was a teddiursa. The myths said that the gods, beings like Arceus put the shapes into the sky."
I was getting more than a few odd looks... Ah, most of pokeworld didn't know that Arceus even existed let alone his name. And here I was trying to explain stuff to a bear. A very very smart bear but still a bear that grew up in the middle of the woods. I had gotten used to Mal understanding everything I said. Pokemon intelligence could range wildly from animal to supercomputer.
"Well, we'll cover that stuff some other time. I was thinking of the name Callisto. Though we'd probably just use Callie. It's another name for that great Ursaring in the night sky where I come from and it's linked to the moon."
She seemed to consider it for a moment or two before standing up and sitting on my lap. She turned her gaze towards the stars. I turned my own towards them.
"Callisto it is then."
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The next day I packed up camp and started the trek back to Route 31. Violet city and the first gym badge were waiting. Mal should be able to handle the gym but Callie might have some issues. She was unlikely to have any ranged attacks and she would be fighting birds. They wouldn't have many ranged attacks either, maybe just Gust but… well I'd need to figure something out.
Callie was in her pokeball as her tiny little legs had trouble keeping up with my pace. She was pretty much a teddy bear. I had been tempted to give her a shoulder ride. It would have been nice to have had her out of the ball to give us time to bond. However, we were approaching the main entrance to Dark Cave. The area was much more rocky and I needed to be careful with my steps.
Mal floated nearby and we had fallen into our standard routine. He seemed to be getting faster with the conversions and could go through more of them. Defensive protean bullshit might just be ours someday. If I could somehow get eviolite and get him an Upgrade to evolve him into Porygon2... well then nothing was going to break the duck wall.
I didn't think I could evolve him into PorygonZ and well I didn't want to. Porygon2 was much better suited for the whole space exploration purpose Porygon had been partially made for. Evil teams had seen this and developed an item called the Dubious Disc which was essentially a sketchy software patch. It was part of the reason PorygonZ was so odd and glitchy; they were full of bugs from the messed up patch the teams had developed. They gave that patch to a bunch of Porygon2 and then yeeted them into other dimensions to explore.
It wasn't the nice dimensions.
Mal took me out of my musings with a nudge to the shoulder. There sunning itself on a rock ledge in the morning sun was our old foe, Dunsparce.
"Stab Thundershock and don't stop." I commanded.
Mal's eyes glowed yellow as he changed types and released a bolt at the dunsparce. They heard us and rolled to the side changing what would have been a direct hit into a near miss. The second follow up bolt hit and Dunsparce took the blow with a low grunt of "Dun" escaping from it.
Its eyes opened to meet Mal's. They glowed red and shone as Glare was used. Mal released another attack hitting dunsparce, eliciting a grunt from it. Its drill started to spin as it studied Mal who had been unbothered by the Glare.
Electric types could not be paralyzed.
It released another Glare before dodging one of Mal's bolts with a few rolls to the side. Their tail sought out the ground and the soft dirt that would let it escape only to hit rock that slowly gave way to the drill, too slowly.
"Dunsparce." It started to bend its back forward.
"Close in, stop the Rollout."
Mal rushed forward with a Tackle, the impact disrupting dunsparce. It replied by whipping around its body and slamming its tail into Mal, the drill still spinning. Mal was pushed a few feet away and let out a pained sounding "Ree".
"Get high, more thundershocks." Dunsparce hadn't shown any ranged moves yet. Mal should be close enough to stop him from running but far enough not to take another hit like that. If we got lucky one of the Thundershocks might paralyze dunsparce.
Mal floated up about ten feet above the ground and rained down Thundershocks. Dunsparce took one of them squarely as it moved forward, seeming to build up speed. It jumped, making it up about five feet into the air. It was still too far away to hit Mal and shouldn't be able to reach.
Then its wings flapped once and it gained the missing distance.
It fucking doubled jumped.
Its body flailed around as it tried to bring its tail forward to strike Mal.
"Dun!"
Mal moved just enough to cause what would have been a solid blow into a glancing one. The rough geometry of his body helping to direct the force away.
There still suspended in the air for a brief second their eyes met.
"GON!"
The Thundershock impacted Dunsparce in the air with nowhere else for the power to flow.
Mal followed it up with a Tackle from above aiding gravity in driving Dunsparce towards the ground. He hit with a grunt that was quickly cut off when the pokeball reached him and he disappeared in a flash of light.
One shake.
Two shakes.
Click.
I let go of a breath I didn't know I had been holding. My hands shook a little as I picked up the pokeball and added it to my belt. Mal had joined me. He had gotten roughed up more than any of our other battles. However, except for some scuff marks he seemed okay. I let out a sigh of relief.
We somehow had gained another member for our team. The second in two days.
"Maybe that whole talking thing is easier."